This is an adaptation of an old saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. In modern day thought, this means that it is better to have a sure thing than to risk the sure thing for more.

A choke in the hand is worth 2 in a Book

A choke that you know well and can perform at a higher level compared to your other techniques is worth two (well way more than two) in a book. In this day of BJJ and the internet, one of the biggest mistakes is for students to perpetually switch from learning different techniques and never mastering any of them. This style of learning is a mistake, and a common one.

Falconry

Now for the original meaning of the phrase. This phrase comes from medieval falconry. The bird in your hand is your trained falcon, this falcon hunts other birds for you. The skills and tools you posses are worth way more than the rewards of a days work. Your skills, on the mat, at work, with people… falconry 🙂 are important to your successes. Spend time collecting powerful skills, not an overflow of knowledge you can’t use.

What are your thoughts? Modern meaning or original? BJJ related or off the mat?

It was not designed to be a odd way to quickly scoot across the mat during Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class. It was designed to help you move your hips. Keep shrimping my friends, it is not a race.

The Shrimp Crawl

Many BJJ students race across the mat at full speed. Focus on curling your body and getting a lot of hip movement. “There are many different kinds of shrimp” Bubba from Forrest Gump once said. Try these different shrimps: using one leg, both legs and shrimping with the opposite leg. Feel the difference from shrimping with a flat foot and shrimping with your toes. Try moving your feet close to your butt and then try shrimping with your feet at a distance. All of these shrimps will produce a different result. From white belt to black belt, everyone uses the shrimp to escape side control and mount.

BjjBrick (metaphor) it’s important to have a few key techniques that you can perform at a high level. You need to have a well-rounded game, but having some great techniques will help you excel at BJJ. To your opponents it will feel like they got hit with a brick. It takes a lot of blood and sweat to make a BjjBrick, but if you are making the correct bricks the effort will be well worth it.

Big strong tree-

The Bjj Tree, Click to enlarge, feel free to share!

Trunk- Fundamentals, Posture, and Game plan

Big branches- Positions, some branches will be stronger than others

Smaller branches- Techniques, from the positions

Leaves- Owning the techniques

Big roots- The pioneers of BJJ, and/or your instructor’s instructor

Medium sized roots- Your instructors and training partners

Small roots- Other methods of training and learning

Pile of leaves and branches on the ground- We all discard some techniques and positions when we are searching for what works best for us, this is normal. You should avoid having a giant pile of leaves and branches under your tree. Focusing on key things will help keep you from having this problem.

How important is it to have really good fundamentals? Having poor fundamentals is like a tree trying to grow branches without having a strong trunk. Strong fundamentals are the foundation of your game, like a strong trunk supports a large tree.

The Building Burns-

The building burns. Important concept for someone learning BJJ and making the transition to MMA.

This analogy helps someone who has been training BJJ and now they are going to be doing MMA.

Quote of the week: “I fear no the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee